Raffle Winner Don Taylor at the Trinity River Challenge

Pictured below are photos of the first boat built by DDRC members for the Trinity River Challenge XI on September 9, 2006. The canoe is a 15-foot, tandem boat featuring red cedar sides with a bald cypress bottom. The seat frames and inwales are maple, while the outwales are oak. The end caps are mahogany with an ash center insert and a small cherry tip insert. The wood strips on the sides and bottom are sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass and epoxy resin with a third layer added to the bow and stern for extra wear resistance.

John Pullman and Steve Crowe plan the planks to make the wood strips	John Pullman ripping the strips from planks
Thomas Taylor attaching forms to the strongback	Thomas Taylor and Al Currie checking the alignment on the forms
John Calderia looking on as John Pullman shapes the stern stem with a block plane	Paul Boling, John Pullman and Steve Crowe adding wood strips to the sides and bottom of the boat
Nearing completion of the hull construction process	Steve Crowe adding the last few strips to the bottom
The assembled hull drying and curing on the strongback	A beautiful, handcrafted wood strip canoe ready to finish out
Bryan, Tom, Paul, Steve and John sanding the hull	The bow cap has been added
Tom Taylor aplying resin to the fiberglass-coated exterior of the boat	A group effort helps get the boat ready to display and paddle
Freedom 15 side view	Freedom 15 front top view
Freedom 15 amidship inside view	Freedom 15 front top closeup view
Freedom 15 front bow view	Freedom 15 endcap closeup view

West Marine (Central Expressway) made a significant contribution to our project through substantial discounts on some of the materials we purchased. We encourage your partonization of West Marine, whenever possible, to show appreciation for their valuable contributions to our raffle boat.